Typical combines are designed to harvest a variety of grain generating plants, such as, corn, wheat, oats, etc. Depending upon the type of plant to be harvested, the combine will be fitted with a harvesting head or header configured to harvest the desired plant. For example, the Case 2100 series combine can be used with a header for harvesting wheat, barley, milo, and flax, with a header for harvesting soy beans, and with a header for harvesting corn. However, as with most high quality and high durability agricultural implements as those of Case Corporation, such headers are relatively heavy and may require that the associated combine have four or six front tires to provide proper ground bearing pressures.
Turning to the corn harvesting head, attempts have been made to simplify and to reduce the weight of the components thereof. However, many such attempts have failed because the resulting header is not as effective in harvesting corn as the corn headers of the type sold by Case Corporation. Conventional headers which have been found to be relatively effective for harvesting corn typically include row units, each including two gathering chains, two snapping rolls, and a pair of associated stripper plates. In operation, the snapping rolls rotate to pull the corn stalks downwardly past the stripper plates. As the stalks are pulled downwardly, the ears of corn attached to the stalks are stripped from the stalks by the plates. The stripped ears are then conveyed into an auger of the header by the gathering chains.
In view of the current design of corn headers, it would be desirable to simplify and to reduce the weight of such headers. Furthermore, it would be desirable to reduce the energy required to remove such ears.